[SMM Analysis] The Cost Support for Nickel Sulphate Expands, Losses at Salt Plants Intensify, and Nickel Salt Prices Are Expected to Continue Rising.

This week, nickel salt prices increased, and the supply of nickel salt remained tight.

As of Wednesday this week, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 26,466 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate between 26,150-26,970 yuan/mt. The average price rose WoW.

Demand side, this week was not a traditional peak procurement period, with only a few enterprises making market inquiries. Market transactions were relatively sluggish, but precursor producers showed higher acceptance of the prices. Supply side, in January, some nickel salt smelters halted production for maintenance or reduced production, and some had already stopped shipments, resulting in a continued tight circulation of nickel salt.

In the short term, the rising raw material costs and the intensifying supply deficit will further bolster the sentiment to stand firm on quotes among nickel sulphate producers. Therefore, nickel sulphate prices are expected to continue rising.

This week, the cost support for nickel sulphate expanded, and the losses for nickel salt smelters worsened.

Cost side, this week was not a period for raw material stockpiling, and the market activity of MHP and high-grade nickel matte was relatively low, with related coefficients remaining stable. This week, LME nickel prices rose continuously, driven by LME inventory destocking and Indonesia's macro policies, which pushed up the raw material cost support for nickel sulphate. Currently, producers using MHP, high-grade nickel matte, and yellow residue to produce nickel sulphate are all facing varying degrees of losses. Spot profit data on Wednesday showed that the profit margin for producing nickel sulphate using yellow residue was -3.6%, using MHP was -3.8%, and using high-grade nickel matte was -0.9%.

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